[paraclete]

It seems we are ever to be plagued by killer asteroids and now there is another one, Bennu

NASA plans to launch study of asteroid that could destroy Earth

This one is interesting enough for us to study it which of course begs the question; if we have known about it long enough to name it and prepare a mission to study it, why are we just hearing about it now? This asteroid apparently flies past every six years close enough to hail. It seems to me that instead of putting our resources into fighting each other we should be putting our resources into making sure these objects don't come in contact with Earth

[smoothy]

I don't think you could sell China, Russia and North Korea on that however.

[paraclete]

I don't think you could sell China, Russia and North Korea on that however.

That list is a little biased, I think you should include the US among your list of paranoid states

[smoothy]

That list is a little biased, I think you should include the US among your list of paranoid states

How about your own too...

Since so many countries expect us to pay for everything instead of their own fair share... Defense, World Bank, the UN... etc, etc...

Interestingly enough, how much of NASA's budget is paid for by other countries other than the USA... ?

Maybe when other countries pay their fair share of everything.. attitudes might change... in the mean time... we foot so much of the bill for things its not funny, or fair, and a lot of US taxpayers are getting tired of it.

[paraclete]

You have been listening to that phony Dump.

Your taxpayers should demand your government reduce its military expenditure to that of other nations 2% is adequate. My country spends as a much as others relative to its economic position and will ramp that up for its own reasons, not to pay a levy to a braggart. NASA exists for your reasons, not ours, so the bill is yours. What your taxpayers should be tired of is maintaining that worthless mob in Washington, you don't get good value. But so long as you are paranoid and continue this headlong rush into confrontation we are going to hear this rubbish from you. Personally I think Dump is a Russian sleeper agent

[Catsmine]

Personally I think Dump is a Russian sleeper agent

Funny, a LOT of people think the same thing about his opponent, with Frances Fox Piven as her mentor and control.

[paraclete]

Funny, a LOT of people think the same thing about his opponent, with Frances Fox Piven as her mentor and control.

All that tells me is you were probably infiltrated years ago, perhaps during the cold war and they have come out of hiding

[Catsmine]

For the sake of argument, one would suppose that post-WWII "refugees" were how Uncle Joe got his people planted and into Universities where they could work relatively freely by "promoting academic discussion and diversity."

[paraclete]

Yes undoubtedly they indoctrinated a generation or two

[smoothy]

You have been listening to that phony Dump.

Your taxpayers should demand your government reduce its military expenditure to that of other nations 2% is adequate. My country spends as a much as others relative to its economic position and will ramp that up for its own reasons, not to pay a levy to a braggart. NASA exists for your reasons, not ours, so the bill is yours. What your taxpayers should be tired of is maintaining that worthless mob in Washington, you don't get good value. But so long as you are paranoid and continue this headlong rush into confrontation we are going to hear this rubbish from you. Personally I think Dump is a Russian sleeper agent

No, I've been working in DC for 35 years... I know for a fact WE pay MOST of the United Nations costs, MOST of the World Banks costs.. we also spend far more defending many of our so-called friends than they themsleves spend.

Trump is a successful businessman who had made a good life for himself and his family OUTSIDE of politics... something the Clintons (and many other politicians) have been unable to do.

[tomder55]

Trump is a successful businessman who had made a good life for himself and his family OUTSIDE of politics... something the Clintons (and many other politicians) have been unable to do.

So was Herbert Hoover .

[tomder55]

It seems to me that ins

tead of putting our resources into fighting each other we should be putting our resources into making sure these objects don't come in contact with Earth

In other words you are using this as an excuse to bash the US. even though the US has most likely spent the most of any nation on the planet studying killer asteroids . The facts are that you need $$billions to find and track every possible killer asteroid ,and about 20 years advance knowledge of it's trajectory . Then you have to build a craft big and powerful enough to nudge it out of it's course. Everyone complains that the government doesn't spend enough for this or that pet project . The good news is that most of the killer asteroids have already been discovered (thank the US taxpayer and NASA ) and are not on a trajectory to hit the Earth . The bad news is that it is almost impossible to track all the Chelyabinsk event meteor size objects . The good news is that the odds of an earth killer striking is low . The bad news is a Chelyabinsk event is much more common.

[paraclete]

It seems to me that ins

In other words you are using this as an excuse to bash the US. even though the US has most likely spent the most of any nation on the planet studying killer asteroids . The facts are that you need $$billions to find and track every possible killer asteroid ,and about 20 years advance knowledge of it's trajectory . Then you have to build a craft big and powerful enough to nudge it out of it's course. Everyone complains that the government doesn't spend enough for this or that pet project . The good news is that most of the killer asteroids have already been discovered (thank the US taxpayer and NASA ) and are not on a trajectory to hit the Earth . The bad news is that it is almost impossible to track all the Chelyabinsk event meteor size objects . The good news is that the odds of an earth killer striking is low . The bad news is a Chelyabinsk event is much more common.

You see Tom I wasn't bashing the US, a problem of this size needs international cooperation and you won't have it while ever there are petty squabbles and turf wars. You say all the killer asteroids have been discovered, I think that is wishful thinking, we have only known about this one for a few years and the fact is we don't see the smaller ones coming. We are very fortunate a city hasn't been wiped out by now. Maybe your disinterest lies in the fact that the known large events in the last hundred years have happened in Russia. If those events had happened in the US your attitude would be different. This one maybe a problem in the twenty first or twenty second century and in the mean time we know about apophis but the way things are going there won't be anyone with any capability around by then

You are correct that we need a large craft if we are going to play tug, but we need a large craft for other exploration. What we are doing at the moment is playing at the edges. The US is only interested in space when there is some prestige to be had, Russian development has plateaued, and China will lead soon. The fact is our ideas are too small because they are tied to the military. Rocket engines capable of lifting bigger payloads haven't been developed because the military doesn't need them. Other systems exist but without funding they go nowhere

[tomder55]

The ones that will strike Earth we will never detect in time . You are full of it . The US already leads the effort for asteroid detection . No , what you desire is what the world always wants for the US to spend more and more of our resources so you can keep you nanny state spending levels .

[paraclete]

The ones that will strike Earth we will never detect in time . You are full of it . The US already leads the effort for asteroid detection . No , what you desire is what the world always wants for the US to spend more and more of our resources so you can keep you nanny state spending levels .

Honestly Tom you are a nut. The only part of your spending I am interested in is your military spending and I would like to see less of it. You think we have a nanny state here but we do not, everything is funded, and we were in surplus before you idiots created the GFC because you wanted a nanny state and you didn't know how to do it. I would like your citizens to have what we have, but it isn't going to happen because your ego's will never permit it. You allowed uncontrolled migration, we controlled immigration and we came out a winner. Your experiment has failed, the market is blunt instrument which isn't interested in the greatest resource, people. You exploit people, we do not. The ethos of this continent is sharing, it was the ethos before europeans came here, whereas the ethos of your continent is exploiting. We never had a slave economy and we are the better for it. We haven't had to fight bloody wars here

We are way up there in astronomical research but our instruments arn't tuned to find small objects. You want to play ostrich and if there is one out there with our number on it you don't want to know, but if it is possible to avoid meteor strike, it is a more worthwhile objective than trying to reach a hostile planet or a distant star. This is the home we have, we should protect it and in the process we might find some answers. If you spend the money you reap the rewards

[ebaines]

if we have known about it long enough to name it and prepare a mission to study it, why are we just hearing about it now?

Well, it was discovered in 1999, initial work on a space probe to collect and return samples from an asteroid began in 2004,and the OSIROS-REx mission was approved to visit Bennu in 2011, which two years before Bennu got its name. You're just hearing about it now because you are apparently not tuned in to news sources that would cover this sort of thing. I recall hearing about several years ago, when I believe NASA first published a web site with prediction of Earth impact for many asteroids: 101955 Bennu (1999 RQ36) Impact Risk The good news is that the best estimate of the probability of Bennu hitting Earth through the end of the 22nd century is 0.071%. It's closest encounter is expected in 2135, when it's pretty certain it won't hit Earth, but that close encounter could affect its orbit in a way that would cause it to impact Earth on a subsequent orbit. So, there is no need to cry that the sky is falling, yet, but you can bet that 119 years from now science will have much better understanding of its orbital mechanics and what to do if a future impact is inevitable. As for international cooperation in space - there are many examples, too numerous to list here, especially between the US, the Europeans, and the Russians. Who knows what the state of geopolitics will be in 2135? Perhaps by then even North Korea may be a friend to the free world.

By the way, there is an excellent article in the current edition of "Scientific American" by the Principal Investigator for OSIRIS-REx. Fascinating stuff!